NationStates Jolt Archive

How the hell does he do all that awesome magic stuff?

He blows my mind

He's doing much the same stuff as the Victorians were.

He'd just very good at the window dressing.

He performs illusions. No one performs "real" magic.

He performs illusions. No one performs "real" magic.

Apart from long term D&D players.

He's doing much the same stuff as the Victorians were.

He'd just very good at the window dressing.


noone can match what he does to my knowledge

what the hell do you mean by window dressing?

He performs illusions. No one performs "real" magic.


we all perform real magic, but that is a topic for another thread - this is about how David Blaine does his thing.

How is guessing a number that someone is thinking an illusion?

That dude is freaky. He once threw a deck at a window and the card some dude was thinking about was stuck on THE OTHER SIDE of the glass.

That dude is freaky. He once threw a deck at a window and the card some dude was thinking about was stuck on THE OTHER SIDE of the glass.
Was he the one that got in trouble for doing an illusion of pulling his heart from his chest?

we all perform real magic, but that is a topic for another thread - this is about how David Blaine does his thing.

How is guessing a number that someone is thinking an illusion?


People have been performing parlor tricks like that for years.

what the hell do you mean by window dressing?

How he stages it, showmanship I suppose.

It doesn't matter how simple or hard a trick is. The measure of a good trick is how good the illusion is.

Was he the one that got in trouble for doing an illusion of pulling his heart from his chest?
No idea. He froze himself in Timesquare if that'll refresh your memory. He also levetated.

People have been performing parlor tricks like that for years.


have you not seen his work?

you must not have because he does shit none has ever done. people run away from him screaming.

Was he the one that got in trouble for doing an illusion of pulling his heart from his chest?


lol awesome I wish I saw that one

have you not seen his work?

you must not have because he does shit none has ever done. people run away from him screaming.

You're right. No one ever got excited about Houdini. :rolleyes:

No idea. He froze himself in Timesquare if that'll refresh your memory. He also levetated.
Hmm. I think it's the same guy, but I'm not quite sure. I'll have to go check...

Yup, it was him. That guy's a master.

lol awesome I wish I saw that one
Search for:
David Blaine heart
on Google and there should be some websites with the video.

I can't actually post the link because most of the sites are verboten.

You're right. No one ever got excited about Houdini. :rolleyes:

but have they run away from houdini screaming that he is the devil?

doubt it - but then I have never seen any of houdinis stuff on video so I cant say for sure

escape artists and the usual card tricks are lame anyway. Blaine blows everyone I have ever seen away.

Search for:
David Blaine heart
on Google and there should be some websites with the video.

I can't actually post the link because most of the sites are verboten.


thanks! :)

found it (http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/7518)


lol - did anyone see teh david blaine south park episode?

found it (http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/7518)
Oh, i thought it was on EbaumsWorld!
I didn't post the link because I know EbaumsWorld isn't well-liked by the mods, and thought that's where it was..

I just watched the "heart" video. What a joke. Why is it he had to keep pulling his shirt in front of his chest? Why not just take the shirt off? Maybe because it's an illusion, no different that Copperfield and all the other hacks have been doing for decades.

yeah i agree, that one looked like it could easily be faked

it doesnt even come close to comparing to his average good stuff

How the hell does he do all that awesome magic stuff?

He blows my mind

Then your mind must be so dense, that a slight change in pressure will cause your head to explode in a violent discharge of deadly bone infested shrapnel!

That man is a waste of space, I am insulted to know that he has been in the United Kingdom. KEEP HIM OUT!

The levitation trick is pretty simple too.

He just goes up on the tip of one foot, while standing in such a way that you can't see the foot touching the ground. It's not that amazing.

Anyone who believes this guy is better than Houdini is nuts.

one of the more astounding tricks he has performed was when he stopped a lady walking down teh street and was doing a card trick on her, but then asked for the time and when she looked at her watch it was gone.

so he says come over here and leads them to the front of a store window where he asks her to look inside the closed jewelry store window and there on display is her watch.

her and her boyfriend are freaking out and he says "I'll get it for you" and grabs a piece of news paper - he then puts the news paper up against the window and reaches his arm under the paper and you see it emerge on teh otehr side of the window where he grabs her watch and pulls it out and hands it to her.

he walks away leaving them tapping ont eh glass tryign to figure out how he did that.

then theres all the times he levitated far above the ground

his reading of peoples minds

he would tell people secret6 stuff about loved ones that made them cry

The levitation trick is pretty simple too.

He just goes up on the tip of one foot, while standing in such a way that you can't see the foot touching the ground. It's not that amazing.

Anyone who believes this guy is better than Houdini is nuts.


I saw the debunking of that trick and saw the levitation trick and know for sure that that is not true. he goes WAY higher off teh ground than one foot could take him if standing on tippie toe

The levitation trick is pretty simple too.

He just goes up on the tip of one foot, while standing in such a way that you can't see the foot touching the ground. It's not that amazing.

Anyone who believes this guy is better than Houdini is nuts.

Glad I'm not the only one pointing this out.

Then your mind must be so dense, that a slight change in pressure will cause your head to explode in a violent discharge of deadly bone infested shrapnel!

That man is a waste of space, I am insulted to know that he has been in the United Kingdom. KEEP HIM OUT!


awww jealous of his mastery over magic eh?

Glad I'm not the only one pointing this out.


then you obviously havent seen his levitation trick

poor you, you are missing out big time on really good tricks

I saw the debunking of that trick and saw the levitation trick and know for sure that that is not true. he goes WAY higher off teh ground than one foot could take him if standing on tippie toe

What? Take a look at that Street Magic special. He goes 2 inches off the ground at most.

What, do you believe it's real? Because it isn't. There's obviously some trick to it, even if that isn't it.

What? Take a look at that Street Magic special. He goes 2 inches off the ground at most.

What, do you believe it's real? Because it isn't. There's obviously some trick to it, even if that isn't it.

the lame ass street magic special guy went two inches off the ground, but david blane went like a foot off the ground - you could see it clearly

just because magic doesnt exist in yoru reality doesnt mean it doesnt exist.

the lame ass street magic special guy went two inches off the ground, but david blane went like a foot off the ground - you could see it clearly

just because magic doesnt exist in yoru reality doesnt mean it doesnt exist.

....BWAHAHAHAHA!

He didn't go nearly a foot off the ground. He didn't go that high at all. If it looked like he did...Well, camera tricks are as much magic as his garbage.

the lame ass street magic special guy went two inches off the ground, but david blane went like a foot off the ground - you could see it clearly

just because magic doesnt exist in yoru reality doesnt mean it doesnt exist.

So you actually believe this guy has some sort of "supernatural" power(s)? You've gotta be joking.

just because magic doesnt exist in yoru reality doesnt mean it doesnt exist.


sheesh, go read some more harry potter or something :rolleyes:

then recreate what David Blaine has done, if it's so easy

i believe in magic and I live in a magical world

i dont read harry potter but thanks for the offer :)

....BWAHAHAHAHA!

He didn't go nearly a foot off the ground. He didn't go that high at all. If it looked like he did...Well, camera tricks are as much magic as his garbage.


yes, he did - you obviously havent seen his street magic videos if you think otherwise

then recreate what David Blaine has done, if it's so easy

i believe in magic and I live in a magical world

i dont read harry potter but thanks for the offer :)

Been there, done that.

I had a co-worker who didn't believe Blaine's trick was so simple. He understands the reality of it, now.


yes, he did - you obviously havent seen his street magic videos if you think otherwise

Oh, I've seen it. And he definately didn't.

I just finished reading about the Enlightenment in Europe.

What happened to you guys? Turn it back around, start believing science again, please :(

then recreate what David Blaine has done, if it's so easy:)

I can't recreate what Oppenheimer did to create the A-Bomb, but I'm pretty sure that was REAL. Just curious, do you believe everything you see in movies too?

Been there, done that.

I had a co-worker who didn't believe Blaine's trick was so simple. He understands the reality of it, now.


show me - oh thats right you cant :rolleyes: JEALOUS!

I just finished reading about the Enlightenment in Europe.

What happened to you guys? Turn it back around, start believing science again, please :(
heh not all of us are dumb fucks like this guy, we don't want david blaine any more than you do :p

show me - oh thats right you cant :rolleyes: JEALOUS!

You're right, I can't.

Because I don't know who, or where you are, and if I did, it's likely some distance away from where I live.

I know! I'll learn some teleportation magic. Then you'll see.

I can't recreate what Oppenheimer did to create the A-Bomb, but I'm pretty sure that was REAL. Just curious, do you believe everything you see in movies too?


well Im sorry that your mind is so mediocre that you cant even follow a scientific method to accomplish something but that isnt my fault :P

No i dont believe everything I see in teh movies but if I did then it would be real because then it would be my reality.

dont you understand that there are as many realities as there are people?

well Im sorry that your mind is so mediocre that you cant even follow a scientific method to accomplish something but that isnt my fault :P

No i dont believe everything I see in teh movies but if I did then it would be real because then it would be my reality.

dont you understand that there are as many realities as there are people?

I realize that some people are nutters.

One person's reality isn't real unless it can affect the realities of others. If it can't, then it's called delusion.

heh not all of us are dumb fucks like this guy, we don't want david blaine any more than you do :p


i believe in science as well as magic and think they are one in the same

I'm not trying to tell anybody what to believe - that would be retarded

but I am above callign someone harsh names because I dont agree with them

ahhh it feels good not to sink to such shallow levels :fluffle:

I realize that some people are nutters.

One person's reality isn't real unless it can affect the realities of others. If it can't, then it's called delusion.

then that would be true in your individual reality

i believe in science as well as magic and think they are one in the same

I'm not trying to tell anybody what to believe - that would be retarded

but I am above callign someone harsh names because I dont agree with them

ahhh it feels good not to sink to such shallow levels :fluffle:

the lame ass street magic special guy

Yeah, you're the king of the moral high ground. Go you.

besides... what does it matter if I live in a completely different reality that someone else as long as I am happy with my beliefs? why must you be so nasty so someone who believes different than you? are you threatened somehow by it? I cant see where all your hostility comes from.

Yeah, you're the king of the moral high ground. Go you.


*champion*

I find your belief in this guy's "abilities" truly dumbfounding. But such is your right as a free individual. You're actually starting to make me understand how people get fooled into believing organized religions too. One thing I do agree with you on, we can have an argument/discussion with resorting calling each other names.

besides... what does it matter if I live in a completely different reality that someone else as long as I am happy with my beliefs? why must you be so nasty so someone who believes different than you? are you threatened somehow by it? I cant see where all your hostility comes from.

You can live in your own reality if you want. The fact of the matter, however, is that your world is wrong.

So don't try and convince me you're right.

Frankly, I don't see how you reconcile your world view with getting into debates like this.

He practices black magick duh, but those damn Super Best Friends keep foiling his evil plans to form a world cult and commit mass suicide of the sinful masses..

I should know, I'm still waiting for my membership card in the mail of The Legion of Doom. (Saddam Hussein and Proffesor Chaos invited me in..)

Damn UPS bastards, just cause we're evil don't mean we can't use the divine FED-EX! :headbang:

I find your belief in this guy's "abilities" truly dumbfounding. But such is your right as a free individual. You're actually starting to make me understand how people get fooled into believing organized religions too. One thing I do agree with you on, we can have an argument/discussion with resorting calling each other names.

great! :) well sometiems realities cross and reinforce each other and other times they dont

Life conforms to yoru deepest beliefs no matter who you are.

you will always find evidence to support your own belief and thats how ALL debates work.

you just might not agree with the opposite view because it doesnt conform with your belief and so you find evidence to teh contrary because life conforms to your beliefs and and gives you just what you want.

You can live in your own reality if you want. The fact of the matter, however, is that your world is wrong.

So don't try and convince me you're right.

Frankly, I don't see how you reconcile your world view with getting into debates like this.


Prove my world is wrong.

of course you willb e able to - see above


or below even :P

that ALMOST made sense! :P

believe it brutha~!


ahahahahahaha

ok I'm done having fun with you guys I gotta go home

g'nite

or is it?

lol it always cracks me up when people think forums are chatrooms and say goodbye :D

I can't believe that ppl actually think Blaine is:
a) Capable of performing supernatural feats
b) Interesting to watch

He's just doing what other magicians have done for decades. It's all to do with sleight of hand and knowledge of basic psychology.
Like his reading ppl's mind. One thins he asks is for them to think of a number between 50 and 100 where both digits are even and different.
Most ppl will say 68. Impressive? Not really. Think about it - how many numbers are there between 50 - 100 that conform to those criteria:
60, 62, 64, 68, 80, 82, 84, 86.
Most ppl don't think of 0 as even, so won't think of 60 and 80. That leaves just 6 to choose from. So he has a 1 in 6 chance of getting it right if it's random. But for some reason most will go for 68 (I think because when asked for a even number, they think of 6 first - being the first even number after 5 and then will think of a even number bigger than 6 generally, not smaller). Something like 40% I think. So he has almost a 1 in 2 chance of being correct. I think the next most common number ppl think of is 86. Which means if he says 68 and they're thinking 86, he still looks like he's reading their mind.
And we don't get to see the times ppl have said another number. They only show us on TV the ones he gets right.

I saw on TV a few years ago a comedian magician (from Oz). Not only was he very funny, his tricks were pretty damn cool. While being interviewed he walked into a bar, went up to a guy having a drink, asked him for $20 and got him to write his name on it.
When he did this, the magician said "Jeez you're an idiot! You've just made this $20 worthless! Only one thing to do now, and that's flush it away". With that he walked into the toilet (cameras still following him), asked the guy to throw the bill in the toilet, closed the lid and flushed. Lifted the lid and no note. Guy asked for his money back. After embarassing him for a few minutes (and the guy was starting to get upset), the magician finally gave in and said follow me. They walked out the bar, down the road to the nearest convience store. Magician asked the guy what his favourite cigarettes were, had him buy a packet and unwrap it. Magician pulled a cigarette from the case and handed it to the guy. Told him the close his hands tightly and rub the cigarette so the tobacco went everywhere. When he opened his hands, the guy's $20 note was rolled up among the cigarette pieces. So cool. But just amazing sleight of hand is all.

My own personal experience with someone doing a Blaine-type trick was late last year when I went for a long walk through HK (One side of the island to the other - took about 6 hours). Anyway, I was walking down to get the ferry to go home when a Hindu guy came up to me and said I looked like a good honest man and was I interested in him telling me my future. I tried to tell him I had no money on me (well $20HK, but that's like $2.50US or 2Euros), but he didn't hear me and kept talking, so I went along with it.
He was carrying a pad with scraps of paper on it. He quickly wrote something on one piece, screwed it up and gave it to me. Asked me to hold it tightly while he asked me some questions. He asked me how many siblings I have, where I'm from, what countries I'd like to visit, name of my favourite flower (I was going to say Chrysanthemum, but I can't even pronounce it let alone spell it), single status, job, friends etc etc.
Then he gave me a long speech about what my friends are like (apparently they sometimes talk about me behind my back - the bastards), my career (I was due for a promotion - actually I got made redundant 6 weeks later, but I've since found a higher-paying job so maybe he was right in a way), I was going to be rich and happy and so on.
He said if what he had written on the paper in my hand was the same as my answers then everything he had predicted would come true. He asked for the paper, put it to his head, said a prayer, kissed it, gave it back to me and asked me to open it.
Sure enough all my answers were written down on the paper.
Pretty damn cool trick. But while he was talking to me during his questioning I assume he was writing down my answers on another scrap on paper, screwed it up and switched them when he 'blessed' it. Even though I was watching for that I still didn't see him do it, he was so good.
What was really funny though was then he started asking for money from me. He showed me a bill ranging from $100 up, according to how much I wanted the things to come true. I told him I literally had no money on me and showed him my wallet. He was so shocked. He asked me when I could come back to pay him and even for my phone number and address so he could come and collect (I told him I'd only just moved to HK and had no phone and couldn't remember the name of the street I lived in).
Way I figured it, if he really was able to read minds and see the future like that he should have been able to 'see' that I had no money on me.

Purpose of these long-winded stories? That Blaine isn't unique. Lots of other ppl can do the same tricks. They keep talking to you and usually doing things with their other hand to divert your attention away from what they're doing.
Don't get me wrong, it's still bloody impressive. There's no way I (or any of us) could do what he does. But he has been practising daily for years.

And to those who say Houdini doesn't measure up, do yourself a favour and read about him. He was the first magician to realise showmanship was more important than the trick. And yes, lots of ppl did say he was the Devil.

One of my favourite stories about him was when he said he could escape any prison in the World within 30 minutes. One Warder took him up on the offer. In his prison the deadlock was within the door itself and could only be operated by a lock 10 feet away from the doors.
They stripped Houdini naked, searched him carefully, locked him in the cell and then went upstairs to wait.
After 30 minutes, Houdini hadn't appeared. After 40, still no Houdini. THe Warder was looking very pleased and smug in front of the reporters. After 45 minutes, the phone rang.
It was Houdini.
Apologising.
He was on the other side of town preparing for his show that night. He said they should go down and check the prison, as he'd left them a surprise.
They went down and sure enough no Houdini. He had not only broken out, but had also unlocked all the other cells and got the prisoners to change cells.

That's showmanship.

well I wouldnt be so sure about anything

you never know what the facts are... only what you believe the facts are because of whatever criteria you accept as true

I for one am have seen teh future exactly as it happened before and knew what someone would say word for word before they said it.

I have a friend who knew her grandma died right when it happened a state away and called to see if it was true to find out that it surely was. In fact, she knew that it happened before those that she called knew. They went to go check on her and found her dead.

Coincidence? I think not. But if you want to believe that then go ahead. After all, it's your reality, live it to your liking (or disliking)

I am a street magician, and I can tell you from first hand knowledge that David Blaine is not well liked in the magic community. The reason he is not well liked is because he cheapens the art form by adding special effects.

David Blaine makes use of heavy editing on his TV specials. Have you ever noticed that they are not live? Alot of his tricks are 3 or 4 part tricks and he edits out the middle parts (which is where the trick is actually performed). I wish I could give an example, but doing so would force me to expose how the trick is done, and thats a big no no. So, Ill give an example in very vague terms and wont mention which trick I have in mind.

One of his more exceptional tricks is a very old trick which requires previous knowledge of what a person is going to say. Since David Blaine does not have the previous knowledge, he needs to first obtain this knowledge from the person by asking them. After obtaining this knowledge, the magician needs to distract the person while he does the secret moves necessary to perform this trick. Most magicians would use patter (talking, jokes, etc.) to distract the person, David Blaine probably uses something like asking the person to concentrate instead (jokes and talking are not his style). Finally, having asked the person for the information and performed the secret moves, it is now possible for the magician to reveal the magic part to the audience. When you see it on tv however, they have cut out the middle part. So, he gets the information he needed from the person then right away reveals the magic trick. A home viewer trying to figure out how the trick might be done will never stand a chance, because the home viewer is not aware that there is a missing part of the trick where the person he was speaking to needed to be distracted. To you at home, this 3 part trick looks like a one part trick.

The levitation is another infamous example of how David Blaine cheats his viewers. The levitation trick David Blaine performs is done using camera tricks. He levitates a few inches off the ground using a classic magic technique and uses camera tricks to make it seem like he levitated alot higher. This is not magic, this is special effects. If I wanted to see special effects I would watch a Hollywood movie. The use of camera tricks is unacceptable to serious magicians.

David Blaine also makes heavy use of stooges (people planted in the audience). Dont get me wrong, every great magician uses stooges from time to time. There is absolutely nothing wrong with planting a stooge or two in the audience and I would be hard pressed to think of a top magician who has never used a stooge. However, when your show is not filmed in front of an audience and the only audience member you have is in on the trick, then what you are filming is not a performance of magic, its a movie about a guy who does a magic trick.

I could go on all day. But I think I can sum it all up quite simply. David Blaine is no more a magician than Stephen Spielberg. He knows some magic tricks (alot of his card work is actually not bad), but he uses so many special effects in his shows that they can no longer be considered magic. If David Blaine was asked to perform his tricks live, people would quickly find out that he can do less than half of the stuff he does on TV.

PS. If you want to catch a real street magic master, try to catch Gazzo if he ever comes to your area. But dont take the kids along, he is very foul mouthed.

why are you guys still bothering to write such long posts? the original poster won't accept it as 'his reality' anyway, and will insist that david blaine is in fact a real magician :rolleyes:

I don't know if he's for a real or not (more likely not) but that trick where he nicks the persons watch, then it's in a shopwindow, then he puts his hand through the glass to get it... well even if that's fake i can't figure out how the hell he does it.

The cynics on here really make me laugh. Why can't you just accept the fact that the guy is a good entertainer and let it lie. Maybe he is a sloppy magician, but he has definitely figured out how to market it. Kudos to him for being successful.

The cynics on here really make me laugh. Why can't you just accept the fact that the guy is a good entertainer and let it lie. Maybe he is a sloppy magician, but he has definitely figured out how to market it. Kudos to him for being successful.
I'm not saying he's not a good entertainer ... In fact I don't know because I've yet to see him perform. I'm just saying he doesn't do real magic, as the original poster seems to think.